One thing you have to give the lads in The Clan Of The Red Beanie. They certainly know how to thrive in what many of their pet politicians call Our Litigious Society. Confronted by the civil law, the boys in the Clan don't reach for Scripture. They don't pray in seclusion for the imminent arrival of the Holy Spirit. They whip out their BlackBerries — and thank the Lord that's all they whip out — and dial up their lawyers, and then they do what the lawyers tell them, regardless of whatever Vatican-based palaver they dish out to the rest of us.

There's a real gem of a case going on in Colorado right now, where a Catholic hospital is alleged to have contributed to the death of a pregnant woman, and of the twins she was carrying, and in defense of its right not to be socked with the mother of all malpractice judgments, Holy Mother Church has discovered its inner Kate Michelman.

But when it came to mounting a defense in the Stodghill case, Catholic Health's lawyers effectively turned the Church directives on their head. Catholic organizations have for decades fought to change federal and state laws that fail to protect "unborn persons," and
Catholic Health's lawyers in this case had the chance to set precedent bolstering anti-abortion legal arguments.

Instead, they are arguing state law protects doctors from liability concerning unborn fetuses on grounds that those fetuses are not persons with legal rights. As Jason Langley, an attorney with Denver-based Kennedy Childs, argued in one of the briefs he filed for the defense, the court "should not overturn the long-standing rule in Colorado that the term ‘person,' as is used in the Wrongful Death Act, encompasses only individuals born alive. Colorado state courts define ‘person' under the Act to include only those born alive. Therefore Plaintiffs cannot maintain wrongful death claims based on two unborn fetuses."

Fetuses are precious giftpersons from the baby Jesus unless that principle happens to cost us a buck. Matthew 21: 12-13, beeyotches.